The rear axle is starting to look like something again.This new setup will have nothing hanging below the tubes unlike the factory snag-o-matic setup. It will have a rear anti sway bar, a traction bar, and double shear and protected lower shock mounts.Should be Hyundai proof!

You see those wheel cylinders are not all that is necessary to connect those hydraulic cylinders to the brake shoe.Nope, it tales a piston "strut" sticking out fo either end to get that done.

Funny thing is mine went into the bowels of the great white and green garbage truck! Sill me, I was thinking the parts kit to replace EVERYTHING hardware related contained these pieces of hardware. I guess something in their nature precludes them from hardware status LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE in the kit...So bottom line is I was suddenly short (Litterally) 4 strut pieces/parts.

I soon found out that these little cylinder lookin things with a slot in the end are not carried in any parts store. Neither can they even reference them. It's as if all that were ever needed were already built and there is no possibility that they could ever possibly rust of corrode in the ultraclean environment of a brake drum!

Not to be defeated so easily, I ordered 4 which an on the ball parts guy was able to conjure up some spirits of great mechanics and parts guys past and locate 4 of the things. Get this, all four are coming in from 4 different states!

Anyway I bolted in the parking brake lever.It's probably in backwards, I'll figure that out when somehow nothing else fits right!But I have this to help me along again!

Just getting back from a show at a local church...The guy who did the sand table drawing...Joe _____

He did several presentations and all I can say is his work is divinely inspired. So amazing, you have to witness it in first person to believe it!

Anyway, Let's post up todays snail pace work.

The goal was to get the brakes all the way to axles installed, but I ran out of minutes and was caught short!

First let me start by saying adieu to my faithful old Fuji camera. That thing followed me all over hells half acre. Lived in my helmet bag in Iraq and Afghanistan. Saw countries all over several continents too numerous to mention. From what I can recall and piece together, that camera is responsible for some 17,000 photos stored here alone!

At the end of it's life, shown here the batteries would only last an hour on a full charge...The lens was pock-marked with welding spatter, and the battery lid was held closed with tape!

Got some more done and again, some parts came in and I installed them within hours of showing up at the door!How cool (and different) is that!

Anyway, I finished building up the axle starting with the remaining brakes install

I brushed everything with the Shark Hide preservative. It is a strong thinner based material. It had softened some of the black which I managed to drag all over the pretty gray stuff...Oh well, it did look pretty once, and now it's starting to look weathered already

Even though I had previously planned to install Shawn's excellent cover after bolting in the axle, I decided to stick it on now. I was anticipating the bolts I ordered to arrive tonight (Which they didn't) so I temporarily slapped on a few bolts to hold it in place while the RTV set up

While all that was drying in the sun, I coated the U=bolts with the shark hide. It is all that is needed to keep those bolts looking good for hours, if not days!No really, the stuff looks and works pretty well for a couple of years.

The reinstallation of the factory F350 sway bar was straight forward. I purchased some replacement rubber bushings which fit like they were made just for this application!

I decided to stick with rubber because this is no canyon racing slot car and I feel a bit of give will trump razor sharp handling, considering we're talking about a crossover vehicle here (Cross between a truck and a tractor)

The alignment with the bar ends and the frame rails is about perfect! All I'll need to do to get the end links to connect up will be to fab up some simple "L" brackets with a hole for a simple factory single shear mounting

I took the original end links which had been previously painted and fitted them with some new hardware and just like that, they are almost ready to make leaning and rolling over in turns a thing of the past!

Quote:Originally Posted by TexasRedNeck View Post Yeah, actually 11K aint bad. Between the built tranny and injectors in my 2001 I have 12K in it not counting the CP3, etc etc. The more I think about it the more I need to sell that money pit. I like the mechanical injector SHTF EMP proof concept of what you have going. Carry on sir!

I like bothAnd that's why I have both concepts going on. The D-Max is by far the more capable vehicle, but any shenanigans by the N Koreans or Chinese and all that electronic stuff is just in the way. Good to have a farm-all tractor wrapped in a Dodge chassis to handle the worst case scenario.

The more I look into these 12 valves and the horsepower you can get out of them vs cost, we ought to just shut our traps and observe. The mech injection Cummins crowd have something going on.My truck comes with 160 HP/ 400 torque. You can adjust the pump to add about 90 horsepower. You add a fuel pin @ $150 and a gov spring @ $25 and you added another 40 or so and RPM for days. A turbo and injectors adds maybe $1600 and you are making more power than a LML and with 20+ MPG

One guy I know pours the used engine oil right into his fuel tank when he changes it! THey run on anything that you can fool the motor into thinking is fuel.Motor mounts are $15 ea., everything is just cheap. And there isn't a maze of wires everywhere. Plus the thing without all the modern crap which we really don't need, barely weighs 6,000 lbs! That's amazing...Our LML's weigh in excess of 8,000! Mine is 8700!Yup, these 12 valves at a minimum make great backup vehicles, and for the time being, the 1st gen trucks are largely overlooked because they don't have inline P-Pumps which are capable of 600-700 or more horsepower easily! __________________

Cincy driveline said they had to straighten it when they balanced it, so in the final analysis, I'm darned happy I had them do it. I'll go up and pick it up tomorrow and get a new coat of paint on it. Should have it mounted by Saturday...Another foot down field!

My goal for today was just to get the front axle disassembled, hub out and evaluate those parts. Did that and moved on from there

I ran the rotors over to O'Rileys auto parts to be turned. While there we fished around until we came up with the new replacement stud. Old shank was .658", new shank is .677" so I'll open up the holes in the hub just a tad